How To Start Affiliate Marketing The Easy WAy In 2026

With the world economy on shaky ground and unemployment on the rise again, don't you wish there was a solution to your money problems? There is and I will show you how to start affiliate marketing the easy way in 2026.

I have been doing Affiliate Marketing since 2013, that's more than 12 years and I have seen some highs and lows, though the highs happen more often. I'm not going to lie to you, this is not a get rich quick endeavor.

Just like all forms of business you are starting from the bottom up, you will have to put in the effort, and yes the money, to get it going. However, now in 2026 with the use of Artificial Intelligence, things are easier.

AFFILIATE MARKETING FOR BEGINNERS

There are many ways you can learn affiliate marketing and frankly, some of those ways are kind of shady and a few I've seen are downright scams. If you are asked to pay thousands of dollars to get started, DO NOT JOIN!

Affiliate marketing is a simple concept for making money and it certainly does not take more than a few hundred dollars PER YEAR to get started. That may seem like a lot to many people, but it's far cheaper than most.

With affiliate marketing it is very possible to make thousands of dollars a year within the first two years, far surpassing the few hundred you invested. This has happened to me and countless others in affiliate marketing.

I used to sell on eBay. I was a Top Rated Power Seller but I got tired of having to pay eBay and PayPal their selling fees. I wanted to build my own website and sell my products directly to my buyers without all the fees.

This is when I discovered affiliate marketing and the concept was super simple. I did not have to buy, stock or ship any products. All I had to do was promote products from major retailers and they paid me for each sale I made.

WHERE DID I LEARN THIS EASY FORM OF MARKETING?

Wealthy Affiliate is where I came to build a website for myself. Back in 2013 they were one of the few places that offered a free website builder for WordPress websites. The best part, you could have this website in 60 seconds.

But hold on! There was another reason why I decided to join. Everyone can join Wealthy Affiliate (WA) for FREE! No Credit Card Required and they give you the first few training lessons, also for free, so you can try them out.

Did you notice the title of this post? I used the WA initials in the word "way" as, How To Start Affiliate Marketing The Easy WAy In 2026. Call me biased but if WA wasn't the Real Deal, I wouldn't have stayed for 12+ years.

Enough about me! Let me show YOU why WA is where you want to be to learn everything there is to know about Affiliate Marketing. I can sum this up in a few words. Wealthy Affiliate is 21 years old, starting in 2005.

If WA wasn't the best legitimate opportunity for creating, building, and owning your unique affiliate marketing business, it wouldn't still be in operation, still evolving and I, like so many others, would have left by now.

IS AFFILIATE MARKETING DEAD IN 2026? - NOT BY A LONG SHOT!

In my soon to be 13 years here at Wealthy Affiliate, I have looked at other Affiliate Marketing programs available online. Not because I was looking to leave WA, that will never happen, but for looking at the competition.

Most of the competition has come - with grand fanfare - and within a few years they went out of business. Longevity in the affiliate marketing space, as WA has proven to achieve, is proof affiliate marketing is not dead.

Though there are THOUSANDS of online retailers that take part in affiliate marketing, giving you a wide choice of options, let me just focus on the two Heavy Hitters when it comes to online retail and affiliate marketing.

AMAZON and WALMART both are excellent retailers to become affiliates with, despite their low commissions payouts. Why? Because they sell practically EVERYTHING and their shipping to consumers is FAST!

Even before Covid-19, online sales were steadily growing, fueled by the simplicity of shopping at large online retailers. However once the Covid lock downs occurred, online sales skyrocketed and affiliate marketing grew!

AFFILIATE MARKETING TRENDS 2026 - ONLY GROWING STRONGER!

Remember, I'm only talking about Amazon and Walmart here, their are hundreds of other well-known retailers that engage in affiliate marketing whose products you can get paid to promote like Best Buy, Target, Apple,...

More and more people are still holding on to the ease and simplicity of ordering online and having it delivered to your door the next day. Both Amazon and Walmart have perfected their package delivery logistics.

Though Walmart uses a variety of package delivery service options, Amazon has its own fleet of delivery trucks from small vans to box trucks to semis. They even have people using their own cars to make same-day deliveries.

The above Google Trends graph shows you how Walmart's package delivery has really grown, starting in mid 2025 to current, July 2026. All of those prior spikes were around the Christmas holiday shopping seasons.

Now that Walmart has their delivery options flowing well, look how much more they are selling online and thus quickly delivering. What helps drive online sales? Affiliate Marketing! Why? People research before they buy.

AFFILIATE MARKETING WEBSITES DRIVE SALES TO ONLINE RETAILERS

With more people staying and even working from home, when they want to buy something new, they will search online for information and reviews. This is where we affiliate marketers can grab some of those sales.

If the big online retailers like Amazon and Walmart recognize the value of using affiliate marketers to drive sales to their websites, so will all of the other smaller retailers. Affiliate Marketing is not dying, it is exploding in growth.

According to AI, Amazon's net sales globally for 2025 were $717 Billion USD. AI estimated that sales via Amazon's Associates Program is between 1-5%. At 1% that is still $7.17 Billion USD in sales for the affiliate marketers.

The graph above is further proof that Affiliate Marketing continues to soar. That graph shows how many packages Amazon shipped through their own delivery logistics. The green bar indicates shipping during Covid-19.

Look how it has grown since then, about 1 billion packages per year! Though the majority of those didn't come from Amazon affiliate links, this still shows you that even at 1%, we affiliate marketers have steady opportunities.

THE NEW WEALTHY AFFILIATE FOR 2026 AND BEYOND

Wealthy Affiliate will turn 21 years old in September 2026 and in my nearly 13 years here, I have seen it always evolving and reinventing itself to stay relevant and up to date. They have already implemented AI creation tools.

Soon they will be rolling out their newly redesigned WA platform to better support and grow this community through the use of AI Affiliate Marketing, which is already the next big thing in online digital marketing.

As a member of WA you already have the best, time tested training, support and community. The reason it has been so successful, even during its low points (no one is perfect) has to do with their desire to get our feedback.

That is proof Kyle & Carson want Wealthy Affiliate to make money for ALL of us! With AI-powered tools and skills, we can apply this knowledge outside of affiliate marketing too and earn income. It's so easy a Caveman can do it.

If you are reading this and you are already a Premium Member, you know why WA is the best for those seeking how to make money in affiliate marketing. If you're a free member, upgrading to Premium will really bring you progress.

If you are reading this and you are not yet a member, this is an income generating opportunity that can earn you revenue in many ways, not just through affiliate marketing. Have questions or comments? Leave them below.